Top 10 Home Brew Beer Recipes

To home brew a great beer—whether it's all-grain or extract—requires, first and foremost, an understanding of the process and mastery of brewing technique. That's not to say creative, well-balanced recipes with all the right ingredients don't help with the final product. We scoured brewing books, listened to beer podcasts, and talked to brewmasters to find ten of the best homebrew recipes out there, representing a range of beer styles. The recipes we found come from some of the best professional brewers in the country as well as absurdly dedicated homebrewers. Cheers!

To home brew a great beer—whether it's all-grain or extract—requires, first and foremost, an understanding of the process and mastery of brewing technique. That's not to say creative, well-balanced recipes with all the right ingredients don't help with the final product. We scoured brewing books, listened to beer podcasts, and talked to brewmasters to find ten of the best homebrew recipes out there, representing a range of beer styles. The recipes we found come from some of the best professional brewers in the country as well as absurdly dedicated homebrewers. Cheers!

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1About the Recipes and Directions

Definitions:

Batch Size: The amount of beer present by the end of your batch.

Original Gravity (OG): The amount of sugars present in the wort before the yeast is pitched

Final Gravity (FG): The amount of residual sugars present in the beer after fermentation

Bitterness: Measured in International Bittering Units (IBU), the higher the number the more bitterness you can expect

Color: The Standard Reference Measurement (SRM) reflects degress Lovibond which range from 3.5 for a pilsner shade to over 25 for a nearly opaque stout.

Hops: Different hop strains provide different flavors and impart varying levels of bitterness. The percentage listed indicates the bitterness level for that strain. The number of minutes listed in the recipe indicates how long each addition should be boiled. Thus a 60 minute hop addition should be added at the beginning of the boil and a 5 minute hop addition should be added 5 minutes before the flame is turned off and cooling has begun. Dry hop additions get added after fermentation has been completed.

Tips and Tricks

Learn your boil-off rate: Boil a fixed amount of water as a test to find out how much water your system loses to evaporation during a boil (it can vary from brewer to brewer with variables such as kettle size and burner output). This will tell you how much wort you need in order to reach your targeted batch size. For instance, if you fill your kettle with 4 gallons of water and boil it for a half hour and find that you're left with 3.5 gallons of water then you know that you're boiling away a half gallon every 30 minutes. A typical 5 gallon batch with a 60 minute boil will require you to start with 6 gallons of wort.

Adjusting the gravity of a beer: If your gravity readings aren't what you're targeting you can add dry malt extract to raise the gravity or add water to lower the gravity. Just make sure that dry malt extract adjustments are added at the beginning of the boil.

Adjusting the bitterness of a beer: The bitterness levels (Alpha Acids or (%AA) of hops vary from crop to crop, but you can make some quick adjustments to ensure that you're bitterness remains consistent. Just plug the numbers into a brewing software program or free online tool like beer calculus to figure out how much hops to add to a beer to hit a recipe's targeted bitterness level.

Yeast Quantities: Pitching the proper amount of yeast is hugely important for any recipe. We highly recommend using Mr. Malty's Pitching Rate Calculator to determine how much yeast you'll need for any beer recipe. The calculator is a free online tool and is also available as a paid iPhone app.

2Blood Orange Hefeweizen

This one comes from the now-famous founder and president of Dogfish Head Craft Ales, Sam Calagione (pictured). Calagione now host the television series, Brewmasters on The Discovery Channel, and is known for an ambitious, experimental and sometimes audacious approach to brewing beer (think, using saliva for starch conversion). This recipe is from Calagione's book, Extreme Brewing.

Directions
Boil and add hop additions according to the schedule above. Peel the blood oranges and separate sections of fruit. Discard half the peels. Cut the remainder of peels and fruit sections into small pieces. Use a grater as you only want part of the rind. The white will add extreme bitterness. Heat fruit and peels in a half gallon of water to 160F and then turn off heat. Let the fruit steep as it cools. Cool the wort and steeping fruit to 70-75F and add to fermenter.

Fermentation
Pitch your yeast and fermet for about 10 days at 70-75F.

3EdWort's Haus Pale Ale

This recipe was provided by Ed Wort from Bee Cave, TX. EdWort is a moderator of homebrewtalk, one of the most popular DIY brewing sites online. Wort describes this staple of his homebrewery as "a beer that everyone likes. It's light, crisp, dry, and very tasty." Hundreds of members of homebrewtalk agree. Here's how to make it.

Directions
Mash all grains for 60 minutes at 152 degrees. Drain the runnings into the boil kettle, recirculating the first quart or so back into the mash. Sparge with 175F degree water and boil for 60 minutes adding hops at the schedule above. Chill to 70 to 75 degrees before pitching yeast.

Fermentation
Use 1 Package of Nottingham Dry Yeast and ferment for 10 Days at 68 Degrees.

This recipe is from Mat Kurth and was first shared on homebrewtalk.com. Mat Kurth added a tropical twist to Ed Wort's Haus Pale Ale by adding orange zest late in the boil and aggressively dry hopping the beer to add a great hop nose.

Mash all grains at 155F for 60 minutes. Drain the runnings into the boil kettle, recirculating the first quart or so back into the mash and sparge the grain with enough 175F water to reach a pre-boil wort volume of approximately 6.5 gallons (assuming that 1 gallon will boil off in the next step). Boil for 60 minutes and add hops according the schedule above.

Fermentation
Cool to 60 F and pitch yeast. Maintain approximately 60F throughout fermentation. After about 10 days of primary fermentation add the dry hop addition and let the hops steep for 14 days.

5Gruagach 80/-

Recipe from Chad Walker from Cary, NC, first shared on homebrewtalk.com. Scottish Ales are known for their clean malty flavors, that often feature a hint of smokiness. Chad's popular ale achieves this smokiness with a dash of peat smoked malt.

Mash all grains at 156F for 1 hour and draw first runnings to kettle. Some amount of caramelization is desired in this beer. To achieve this, take a two pints of the first mash runnings and simmer in a saucepan to reduce to a syrup, taking care to not burn it. Do this while the rest of the wort is boiling. Sparge grains with 175F water to collect the full volume of wort. Boil wort for 90 minutes, begin adding hops with 60 minutes left to go according to the schedule above and add the wort reduction back to the kettle with about 5 minutes left to go in the boil. Chill to 58F and pitch yeast

Fermentation

Ferment on the cooler side of the yeast's optimal range, roughly 58F. The beer takes a while to mature, so give it close to 6 weeks of time in the fermenter before kegging or bottling.

Extract Version

Replace the 9lbs of 2-row with 5.5 pounds of light colored dry malt extract. Steep the other grains for 45 minutes in 155F water, then rinse into kettle before bringing to a boil and adding DME. Reduce a portion of the wort in a saucepan while the main boil is conducted and add back to the kettle with 5 minutes left in the boil.

6Centennial Blonde

Recipe provided by Kevin Mattie, also known as BierMuncher, first shared at homebrewtalk.com. Kevin Mattie describes his hugely popular Centennial Blonde as, "what a local craft brewery might come out of the gates with to win over a new market. Very drinkable with wide appeal. I've yet to have anyone, even Bud/Miller/Coors drinkers not say it's one of the best beers they've tasted…period."

Directions
Mash at 150 degrees for 60 minutes. Sparge with 175F water to create enough wort to reach 5.5 gallons after the boil. Boil and add hops according to the schedule above. Chill to 68 degrees and pitch the yeast.

This recipe is from Orfy, at homebrewtalk.com. Orfy hails from England and he has attracted a big following around the world for the recipe for this highly drinkable session beer that he describes as "a classic northern dark mild like my Granddad used to drink."

Directions
Mash at 158F conversion is complete and sparge with 175F water until you have enough wort for the boil. Boil for 60 minutes and add hops according to the schedule above. Chill to 65F and pitch the yeast.

Fermentation
Ferment at 65F for 10 days before bottling.

8Hoppiness Is An IPA

This recipe was created by Jamil Zainasheff and excerpted from Brewing Classic Styles by Jamil Zainasheff and John Palmer. Jamil Zainashef and John Palmer also co-host live internet radio shows and podcasts about brewing topics on The Brewing Network.

Directions
Mash all grains at 149F until fermentation is complete. This may take 90 minutes due to the low mash temperature. Once conversion is complete sparge with 170F until pre-boil volume is reached. Boil for 60 minutes adding hops according to the schedule above. Cool to 67F, pitch yeast and ferment at 67F until final gravity is reached.

Extract Version

Replace the American 2 row malt with 9.75 lbs. of light liquid malt extract. Replace the Munich Malt with 0.5 lb. of Munich liquid malt extract. Steep all other grains at 155F.

Directions
Mash at 154 until conversion is complete (approximately 60 minutes). Add first wort hops to the boil kettle and sparge with 170F water until pre-boil volume is reached. Boil for 70 minutes adding hops at the schedule listed above. Cool to 69F and pitch yeast. Continue the fermentation at 69F.

10Black Scapular Dubbel

This is another recipe from the award-winning brewer, Jamil Zainasheff, excerpted from Brewing Classic Styles.

Directions
Mash grains at 149F until conversion is complete, at this low a temperature it might take 90 minutes. Sparge grain with 175F water until you reach enough wort in the boil kettle to reach 6 gallons after a 90 minute boil (you'll only need enough wort for a 60 minute boil for the extract version). Add hops according to the schedule above. When the boil is finished chill to fermentation temperature and pitch yeast.

Fermentation
Pitch yeast at 64F and let the temperature slowly rise to 70 over the course of a week. When finished package in bottles or a keg and carbonate. Lager the beer for a month at 40F to 45F.

Recipe Provided by Kai Troester of braukaiser.com. An engineer by trade, Kai is a unique figure in the homebrew world. His website focuses on brewing science and topics that are mostly related to brewing German beers. This recipe is for a classic German Doppelbock. Kai notes that "it is of a dark mahagony color without roasted notes in aroma or taste. Though intended to be complex in flavor it is also very drinkable."

Directions
Various mash options exist for this beer, but Kai recommends an enhanced double decoction. Here's how you do that:Dough in at 104F and rest for 20-30 min. The mash thickness should be 1.25 - 1.5 qt/lb. If your mash tun size allows, use the thinner mash.Draw 60 percent of thick mash as decoction and heat it up to 158 - 164 F. Rest it there until converted (negative iodine reaction). This should take only 15-20 min.Continue heating and boil for 30 - 40 min. Add some water to compensate for the boil-offReturn to the mash tun to reach a saccarification rest temp of 153F and rest there for 45 min. Note that the protein rest has actually been skipped.Use a mash-out decoction to reach mash out at 167 FLauter the wort

Fermentation & Lagering
Cool the wort to 41-46F and pitch the yeast after oxygenating the wort. You may give the beer another shot of oxygen after 10 to 12 hours if no activity is visible yet. Ferment at 56 to 48F for 4 weeks. Once the primary fermentation and maturation is complete, rack the beer to a lagering vessel (other carboy or soda keg) and lager at 32F to 36F for 2-3 months. The lagering process will clear the beer and start mellowing out some of the harsh flavors. You may see another drop of the extract as there will be some yeast still active, but it should not be significant. After lagering, rack the beer to a serving keg or bottle and age at cellar temperatures (50 F) for another 2-3 months before serving.

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